I tried to cultivate a small online safe space here, takki... you created the thread that broke it all down... just as soyuz was feeling comforatble enough the share with us his self-identification as an apache attack helicopter.

I tried to push for your self-idenification as the space-time entity, and TJ as foot long... but it was too late, you unvirtue signaling wrecked it and unleashed the inner ugliness of even RP.com...

Fear not PJ, the content of the article is accurately reflected by the headline,which in turn accurately reflects what happened in the negotiations today... so while some of the Independent reporting does get a bit clickbait this one does not

"NORTHERN Ireland relies on imports from the European Union to a greater extent than previously understood, new government figures have revealed.

Annual statistics have been dramatically revised to the extent that 2014, which was originally said to have experienced a £239million trade surplus for Northern Ireland, is now shown to have experienced a deficit of over £2billion.

The fresh data has led civil servants at Stormont to revise a key finding of their research into the likely impact of leaving the European Union (EU).

Previous research published by Stormont in January 2016 used data from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to conclude that Northern Ireland exported more to the EU than it imported.

But now revised figures have dramatically overturned the finding, revealing instead that Northern Ireland imports much more from the EU than it exports."

“Trade data in a region such as Northern Ireland is dominated by a relatively small number of large firms, particularly manufacturers, meaning the data can be relatively volatile which further adds to the complexity in drawing firm conclusions. The recent closures of JTI and Michelin for example will have a material impact on trade figures."

I guess that when you have a number of large corporations, especially in the manufacturing sector, the economic trade values would change a lot when you go from basing on where their HQ is based to where their employees are based. It'd be easily 10's of millions per organisation, probs 100's mill with some of the biggest companies. Some of those big manufacturing companies would be dealing in contracts worth 10's mill alone, in one sitting, never mind over a whole year and over a number of large corporations.

"The HMRC trade statistics previously related to where companies based their headquarters, but the new figures focus instead on where firms have the bulk of their workforce."

I'll never forget having a convo with a low wage cleaner when i was in hospital. She was so annoyed that her grandson had to go to his third choice secondary school that she simply had to vote Brexit...at that point I triple loaded on the morphine drip I was hooked up. I remember wondering how this person managed to get themselves dressed in the morning.

So the Brexiteers master plan for getting control of immigration and the borders is to have basically no borders, just pen pushers lol

The government says it will propose an "innovative and untested approach" to customs checks as part of its Brexit negotiations. The model, one of two being put forward in a newly-published paper, would mean no customs checks at UK-EU borders. The UK's alternative proposal - a more efficient system of border checks - would involve "an increase in administration", it admits. A key EU figure said the idea of "invisible borders" was a "fantasy".

The whole things a complete mess. It's mad the amount of interviews and posts online I've read from people who voted for Brexit that are now realising that the whole thing is going to be nothing like what they were sold and now wish they hadn't voted for Brexit.